How champions changed the purpose of ISO

wirius

When a system is originally designed, it is not designed merely on a fun whim, but with a purpose and intent. Examining ISO as a reward in your original pre-champion design, a few intents or side effects of the ISO system.

1. Give the players the joy of leveling
2. Give the players the challenge of resource management
3. Give a more even rate of power increase between covers and levels
4. Give the players a purchasable material.

Championing I believe to be brilliant, an amazing upgrade to player fantasy and their illusion of power. However, its very easy to not think of the unintended consequences of introducing such a system as championing. After watching the dust settle and observing general player feedback and feel, I believe championing has changed the purpose of iso.

While points 1 and 4 are still somewhat sound, 2 and 3 have been altered entirely. To understand this, I want to examine two points.

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1. Championing made players feel that obtaining covers on unleveled champions is a net loss.

Then: It used to be that if you were cover maxed, you just got some iso out of it. While it wasn't as exciting as building a new champ, there was no sense of loss if the champion was already cover maxed. In fact, you could sell the cover to help you max the champion!

Now: Now when you are cover maxed and not max level, pulling the same cover is demoralizing and disempowering. There is a mental calculation inside that states, "I'm potentially losing one of 100 levels for some measily iso".

2. Championing changed "Max level" and the balance between cover obtainment and levels.

Then: Obtain covers, slowly level up to max, character is finished.

Now: Obtain covers, still slowly level up to max before you can begin the REAL levels.

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So what did this do?

1. Championing changed where players obtained the joy of leveling

Because there was a division between covers and iso, there was never any waste. Now that covers can also be levels, the joy in leveling is using covers to level. Now iso leveling is simply a pain and inconvenience blocking you from obtaining the true end game to the champ.

2. Championing made the challenge of resource management a frustration

While before obtaining more covers before maxing a character could be converted without real loss into sio, now the conversion into iso doesn't compare. There is no choice involved. If you currently obtain a cover on a maxed champ, there is only the frustration of potential loss. Now instead of tactically deciding which characters to level first, we're tactically deciding how to level so that we don't lose out on as many champions as possible. Its turned from strategy to triage.

3. Championing is an even way of managing cover obtainment and leveling.

Currently, a person has to race to funnel iso into a cover maxed champion, giving a strange uneven leveling experience in relation to the champion leveling experience. Considering 3* and up take 100 extra covers worth of levels, it seems strange that iso costs are as high as they are still.

4. Iso is still purchasible, but covers became so much more valuable why bother?

While there may be incentive for some to buy iso to make that leap to max championing, is it really worth the frustration of everyone else? Even then, (if my info is correct) whales generally buy HP to buy covers for their iso needs, not iso directly.

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So what to do?

I believe you need to take a very hard look at how iso needs are impacting the game, and whether you can alter this through the new shield system, or lowering iso costs of characters across the board like you did several years ago. I understand keeping 5* costs high, as covers are so rare. But 3* and 4* costs need a serious look again.

I am not advocating the elimination of iso, what I am advocating is easing the bottleneck by quite a bit. Make people excited to compete over covers first and foremost. Iso is nice and good to keep in the game, but I know I would have more fun and be willing to invest in end game covers for champion rewards and levels then buying iso.

You've made a new end game, something you didn't have when you first designed the ISO system. While it was once fun, it has turned into a major frustration and a possible reason people leave the game. While I do not have your numbers, I hope this outlook might help you re-examine your current ISO system with new eyes so your clever designers can solve these problems.